Hudson City Council approves unsafe building determination

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 8:21 AMJan 17, 2013 at 8:22 AM

By Matt Durr

matt.durr@hillsdale.netHUDSON — The Hudson City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to deem the former Tiger’s Den Steakhouse as an unsafe building.City Building Inspector Ray Taylor deemed the building unsafe in November of last year and the council concurred with that assessment.Taylor pointed out that electrical boxes on the outside of the building are open, siding on the building is ripped away leaving an entrance for animals and pieces of facade and the chimney are decaying.“Anytime you have pieces falling onto walkways, you’re risking something falling on someone,” Taylor said.The city will now issue an order to the building’s owner, 327 Beecher LLC, requesting that the building be repaired or demolished in the next 10 days. The owner hasn’t responded to previous requests from the city to make them aware of any plans for the building. If the owner does not fulfill the requirements of the order, the city will then proceed with legal action to have the building demolished.Councilman Lee Daugherty expressed some concern with the city taking over the demolition.“It will cost a lot more to tear it down than the building is worth,” Daugherty said.City Manager Steve Hartsel said the city can apply for a grant to have the building demolished or the city can pay for the demolition and apply the costs as a lien on the property.Located at 115 North Church Street, The Tiger’s Den was purchased at a tax auction in 2011 after the previous owner passed away. Earlier that year, the building was damaged in a fire, destroying parts of the inside.Hartsel said the city has tried on numerous occasions to reach out to the owner of the property for an idea of what plans they have for the it, but has yet to receive a response.“Nothing has been done there to improve the property and it’s continuing to deteriorate,” Hartsel said.